Oliver Gill

Day 17 - Very uneventful so i’m going to skip ahead since this was basically a rest day

Day 18 - I wake up at 11am not feeling so good and decide to skip the WSOP 1500 I was going to play. After getting a bit more sleep, I eventually wander over to the Venetian at around 6:30pm. It’s about 42 degrees (105 fahrenheit) even though it’s late afternoon and the sun is about to go down, probably the hottest day since I got here. I arrive at the Venetian at about 6:50 and decide to play their nightly $120 7pm tournament. Here’s where it gets tricky; their floor staff are hopelessly incompetent and despite being about 30th in line (I was in a similar spot at Caesars and got registered within 5 mins a few days ago) it takes me a full hour to reach the front of the line due to the bumbling incompetence of the ONE person they have registering players even though the tournament is due to start. Random Venetian floorstaff are wandering around doing nothing while the slowest floorperson in history registers players. The line grows over 100 deep and I find my seat at about 7:50pm, well into the THIRD level of this ‘turbo’ tournament. The blinds are already 100/200 and i’m starting with 7500. For some reason they haven’t blinded me off, but because of their incompetent floorstaff, i’m starting with 37.5BB with antes coming into play in 15 minutes and about 60 people in line behind me still to register.

I can sum up the Venetian floorstaff’s performance in two perhaps harsh but certainly true words today.

Fucking disgraceful.

Anyhow, I stay uninvolved early and drop to 6400 or so by 100/200/25 and then at 200/400/50 I start finding spots to squeeze all in over limpers and chip up to about 9k without playing any postflop poker or getting called at all. I find a spot to jam over a raiser with AK and take it down to move to about 10.5k and then the table breaks. I continue open shoving in late position or over limpers with an assortment of hands ranging from JTo to AQs to 55 among other things during 400/800/100 and with about half of the field left, I find myself with 11.5k, down from a high of about 13k, having not played a single pot without being all in preflop and without having been called once when the 600/1200/100 level begins.

During 600/1200/100, I find myself involved for the first time. I find As 8d on the cutoff in an unraised pot and shove about 9.5bb, folded around and super tight woman in the BB who starts tanking. She says she has a really tough decision and I figure it’s something like 77-88 or maybe AT or KQ. After about two minutes, she calls time on herself? WTF? It’s the second or third time i’ve seen someone do that since I got to Las Vegas, why the hell would you call time on yourself? Weird. Anyway, as the clock counts down, she tells me that she thinks I have ace king (lol, since i’ve been open shoving about twice a lap since I got to the table) and I ask what her hand is, she tells me she has a pair so i’m figuring it’s probably 77 or 99. With about ten seconds left on her self-imposed clock, she says ‘ok lets gamble’ and calls showing…. Jc Jd? I say something like nice slowroll and she insists that she thought I had AK so it was a really tough decision for her tournament life (we have almost identical stacks of 9.5bb and I shoved CO)… LOL, Donkaments.

I brick out and start to walk away having counted her stack as 700 more than mine but it turns out I miscounted her yellow 1k chips and I actually cover her by 300. Awesome. It folds around to me on the next hand and I put my remaining 200 in without looking, some guy on the button pops to about 5000 and the blinds fold. He turns over AK and my 64o is in good shape. I somehow bink a six and suddently I have 1600 again, good for slightly over 1bb. On the very next hand, UTG decides to raise to something retarded like 5500 so I throw my 1bb in, everyone folds and i’m getting about 4-1 with my Ah 3h. Unfortunately, villain has Jd Js and I brick out again and wander off to the rail. No comebacks today.

I notice a 6/12 HORSE game on the list and sign up; meanwhile I play a few hands at 1/2NL and end up winning $18 in a 10 hand session when I make a flush on the turn and raise on a paired board after the flop checked around and villain led the turn in a limped pot; villain folds. Whatever.

My 6/12 HORSE seat is ready and I quickly win 10 bets during the first three hands because they seem to be incompetent at L08. I then go card dead and fail to win another hand for 58 hands (it’s 7 full games on rotation plus two hands at 8 hands/game until I win my next hand) and by that time i’ve dropped back to around even without playing particularly tight; i’m just not finding anything. Anyhow, I suddenly find a rush of playable hands and break even for about 50 hands, then go on a bit of a downswing and drop 10 bets or so. The game goes 6-handed as it gets late and I start clawing my way back as the table has weakened significantly. An obnoxious older guy at the table slowrolls a young guy very deliberately and I sarcastically say ‘nice slowroll’ or something to him since the young guy is too nice to say anything. About 10 hands later, i’m even again and the same guy slowrolls me in a pot with the nuts in PLO8, we all show in a 4 way pot, then he takes like 15 secs and shows the nuts in the 4 way hi only pot, I have the second best hand and make some sort of a remark to him (I forget what I said but it wasn’t very nice, he’s slowrolled twice in about 15 mins now), he shoots me a dirty look and I say something to the young guy who is sitting next to me about how much of a douchebag older guy is loud enough so that older guy can hear, older guy seems a bit pissed off and tilts away a few bets then leaves. Good riddance. Slowrollers must die and I don’t care if I make everyone feel slighly uncomfortable in calling them out. At least the woman in the tournament was just a donk and didn’t realise she was slowrolling, this guy was just a douchebag and he was like 50-something too, so much for old people having manners. God help us all if I draw Men ‘The Master’ Nguyen’s table during the Main Event.

Anyway, the table drops to 4 handed then 3 and some of my Aussie friends from Crown have shown up, Michelle, Lee and Tim are all playing various games, Lee decides to sit in 3 handed with me and a fairly tight-fishy guy and we alter the game rotation to LHE/LO8/Razz and we’re 3 handed. I start to dominate LO8 which is my strong game and more than hold my own in Razz, my LHE is fairly weak but nowhere near as weak as the other guys LO8 games so I gradually increase my stack and after about two hours, i’m up about 15 big bets again. Eventually, the tight-fishy guy leaves up slightly after winning some big pots against Lee, i’m up about $200 and Lee is down about $300. Lee and I decide to do a bunch of random $10-20 flips in games varying from O8 to 6 Card Omaha to Chinese Poker (one good thing about Vegas is they’ll deal anything at any table if the entire table agrees and in this case we were left playing HU at about 5am); he wins a little bit back due to ruinning good at flips and I end up booking a $150 win for the session, so i’m up about $30 for the day after the tournament buy-ins and almost exactly even after food expenses are taken into account.

Lee, Tim, Michelle and I head over to a random cafe inside the Venetian casino for breakfast; I order some delicious pancakes and eventually we all part ways, arranging to meet up for dinner (hopefully with the added presence of PTippers) this Thursday night. Message me on the forums for details if you’re interested in coming along to meet me and other random Aussies, eat oversized portions of delicious food and generally engage in other degenerate activities.

I walk home, catch up on some writing and watch some TV; it’s already about 35 degrees at 7am and the sun is burning me. Las Vegas is a strange place.

Stats for Today

Cash: +$150
Tournaments: -$120
Random Aussies from Crown I met up with: 4
Hookers encountered: 0
WSOP Events played: 0
Meals eaten over the past 24 hours: 3 (a record for my trip to Vegas so far; portion sizes here are enormous, I broke my previous record of 2!)
Special Incompetent Floor Staff Award: Venetian
Fastest Mixed Games Dealers Anywhere Award: Venetian

I wake up at about 3pm and head down to the Caesars Forum Shops to do some shopping for presents for people back home. After purchasing a series of excellent gifts for Troy/Cookman/Paul/Brendan/Larissa (don’t worry anyone not mentioned, i’m doing a second round of gift shopping soon), I head over to the Venetian to meet up with Seb and his housemate Steve for dinner. I also run into Skeptix in the poker room who randomly calls out `Swoop` when I walk past (I had no idea what he looked like) and we agree to meet up sometime during the week. We decide to eat at an Italian restaurant at the Venetian; I forget its name but it was upstairs in the shopping area and was actually very good and reasonably priced. Seb, Steve and I elect to partake in a game of credit card roulette for the $130ish bill; I manage to luckbox the first elimination and then Seb eliminates Steve, leaving Seb with the bill. Lifetime record in credit card roulette: 1 win, 0 losses. Off to a good start.

After some deliberation, we head to the Pleasure Pit at Planet Hollywood for some $25/hand blackjack and by that I mean the card counting experts (Seb and Steve, who have been banned from Blackjack at Palms for counting cards over the past few weeks, which I find hilarious) play while I watch. They run really bad as the dealer keeps making 21 with a five showing and stuff and unfortunately drop several hundred dollars. There’s a reason I stay away from pit games. Luckily, our fortunates are revived when we sign up for Planet Hollywood membership and receive $5 each in free slot play; I immediately make a line, a seven and a seven on fire which is apparently good and run it up to $50 on my second spin, promptly withdrawing about free fiddy (i am so clever) and then Steve makes about $20 too. True to his running bad form, Seb loses his free $5. About this time, I realise i`m supposed to be meeting up with Mike and his girlfriend at XS (i`ve been calling it Excess, but I learn this is not the case thanks to a billboard on a taxi). Unfortunately, we`re way too late as it`s after ten and they would already be inside so we decide to get a taxi back to Palms for some Chinese poker. After teaching me the rules (it turns out I knew them already but just didn`t know how to score) we agree to $5 per point. Seb starts off hot and is up a few points on both of us, then gets scooped repeatedly and ends up losing $50; I make $10 and Steve makes $40. Seb runs bad, well, except for the whole two cashes for two wsop events this summer. Seb insists that I should play a $1500 NLHE event at the WSOP and offers to buy half my action for the one remaining donkament this series since he has more money than Jesus (and or worse bankroll management than Jean Robert Bellande); I tank and then call his offer so I now get two chances at a bracelet this summer. Hopefully I win both of us some monies. I feel due-ish and i`m definitely going to final table something over the next two weeks.

After Chinese poker, Steve heads out clubbing and Seb goes to bed so I wander downstairs to the Palms Poker Room for some 1-3NL. Along the way, I encounter many drunk women in lingerie, apparently there is a lingerie party somewhere. One girl is wearing nothing but a bra and gstring, another is wearing a bra, miniskirt and no panties. Why the fuck am I playing Chinese poker with Seb with all of this talent running around! In addition, there is a Pussycat Dolls concert going on at the Palms auditorium so there are many, many drunk hotties wandering around. Unfortunately, it`s too late as the party, whatever it was, seems top be over so I find my way to the 1-3 table and buy-in for $300 (min 100 max 500). I quickly find kings and aces and manage to get it in preflop with kings against AQ which holds, then get two streets of value with aces to run my stack up to $600. Sadly, I lose a major pot where I hold QhTh on a Qd8c3cTd7d board; I raise a limper preflop and get 3 way action, I lead the flop strong with one call, I lead the turn strong with one call, then checkcall a strong bet on the river, sadly villain has Ad8d and I lose a $400 pot. I leak back down to $300 and consider leaving then decide against it and manage to string together a small series of pots to climb back to $500. I find eights on the button, raise to $10 and SB and BB both call. Flop 866. It checks around. 9 on the turn, BB leads, I call, SB folds. 8 on the river. Well, hello there! BB bets, I raise, he tank-folds, I show my eights and learn that I also won a high hand bonus which turns out to be $50 for quads. Another free fiddy! That`s two in one night.

I end up +$327 and cash out just before 5am, it`s light outside. Vegas has a lot of daytime. I get a taxi back home then decide that I want food so I ask him to take me to the nearest place that is open which turns out to be Tuscany`s. I order a delicious $8 chicken burger and the server lady is really nice so I hand her $20 and ask for $5 back on my $8 bill. She seems really shocked as if this is the biggest tip she`s had in days and asks if i`m sure then thanks me like I just cured cancer. I`m glad I could make someone else`s day. I`d have happily paid $15 for the burger anyway. Food is so ridiculously cheap in America, after all, where else in the Western world can you sit down in a restaurant to an $8 meal…

As i`m walking home, I see three police cars pulled over, a guy with no shirt on who is handcuffed and a hot chick (probably an 8.5) in a skimpy outfit also being arrested in some bushes by the side of the road. I walk close by deliberately out of curiosity. The officer is counting money from the girl`s purse and she is loudly protesting that they `didnt even do anything`. Poor girl just trying to make a living and poor guy just wanted a blowjob. LOL, Law Enforcementaments

I walk home, do some writing and crash out at around 6am.

Today`s stats

Tournaments: $0
Cash Games: +$327 (277 from poker, 50 from high hand bonus)
Random Degenerate Gambling: +60 (50 from free slot play at Planet Hollywood, 10 from Chinese Poker with Seb and Steve)

I manage to wake up in time for the $340 Megastack at Caesars today; we get a field of 301 and start with 15k at 25/50 with 50 minute levels. Due to the ridiculous line at the registration window, I find my way to my table about 15 minutes late. A few hand in, I raise for the first time and find myself involved with effective stacks of 15k.

Folded to me on cutoff, I raise to 150 with Ks6s, button (a British guy who I played with at ANZPT but can’t remember much else about) decides to call, the big blind calls and we take a three way flop.

Flop: Qs 8c 3s

BB checks, I bet 300, button raises to 900, BB folds, I call

Turn: Jd

I figure that’s a decent card to represent since villain never has a gutshot and often has a one pair hand; plus I have a chance to hit my flush draw on the river and surprise him. I check with the intention of raising if he bets and jamming if I miss the river or jamming/value betting if I make my flush, depending on which spade it is. Button bets 1400, I raise to 3500 and button thinks for a moment and then calls.

River: 4s <– Bink

Villain looks a little uneasy about the river. I stack up my chips with the intention of moving in, villain seems weak so I decide to value bet instead. I fire 4000, he calls and then mucks in disgust when he sees my hand. Up to 23000 early and off to a good start.

I splash around a bit for the next few levels, flopping two sets and getting no action but otherwise missing flops. I get up to 26k then back down to 21k by the start of 200/400/50 without playing a pot that goes past a postflop cbet. The table breaks and I find myself in Seat 3 at a new table; Seats 1 and 2 (a hot blonde woman in her 20s and a 30something guy who is a local in Vegas) are discussing the shortage of weed in the city, something I find slightly odd but amusing nonetheless in a public setting.

I find KQ and QQ during my first orbit and win the blinds twice, then pick up AdAh in MP and raise to 1125 for the third time in four hands. I have about 23k, button has about 18k. Button calls and everyone else gets out of the way.

Flop: Ac 2c 2d

Cool. That works. I check, villain bets 4000. I guess he must have an ace. I call with the intention to lead the turn and shove the river.

Turn: Td

I bet 4000, villain shoves, I quickly call, villain tables As Ks and is drawing dead. Apparently, AsKs is not a hand worthy of a 3bet on the button in live poker. I really expected to see AT-AQ there. In any case, i’m up to about 42k and in really good shape by the time 300/600/75 starts. There are two stacks that cover me at the table and a lot of people with under 10k. This could get interesting.

A few hands into 300/600/75, a 30-something live player who is cvery chatty and spewy opens UTG+1 to 1800. He covers me. I look down at Ks Kh on the cutoff. Cool. I raise to 5100 and a short stack behind me moves all in for about 3500, less than my raise. Villain makes a speech about how online players play back at him too much, asks me to count out my stack and then elects to call. I figure his range is something like 88-QQ, AQ, AK at this point.

Flop: 5s 3s 2c

Mainpot: 12k
Sidepot: 3200

Villain open shoves, essentially betting 37k since that’s about what I have behind. This makes no sense, he shouldn’t have a set. Is he doing something spewy and panicking with JJ-QQ? It doesn’t add up. I quickly call and table my kings like they’re the nuts (which they obviously are here) and the short stack turns over 5c6c. UTG+1 turns over As Qs. Nice flat call out of position, sir. Now it’s time to race for the chiplead.

Brick it!

Turn: 5h

The short stack does a mini-fistpump as he makes trips, but I still have to dodge a million outs for the 75k sidepot.

Brick!

River: 9s

@#$%^&*#$%^&* roughly describes my feelings right about now. UTG+1 screams out ‘yesssssssssssss!!!!’ and starts celebrating, I shake hands with the short stack who is also eliminated then shake hands with UTG+1 and wish him luck despite his over the top celebration and I head off to the rail. I don’t really feel disappointment or anything until about 10 minutes later, when I realise I would have been chipleader with about 140bb at a table of short stacks and the pot was worth well over 1k in equity.

Massive sigh at busting in the first major pot I play where villain isn’t drawing dead. I’m chipping up nicely in these things but I have nothing to show for it except the receipts for the 4k USD i’m stuck so far.

Getting stuck another $300 or so due to exchange rates from having to cash out my Main Event money into AUD is also somewhat unpleasant. This trip is turning into a financial disaster. Plenty of time to fix that though. I just need to actually win something.

Mike’s success aside, my side of Day 14 was fairly quiet. I relaxed at the condo for most of the day, only venturing out to Bill’s Gambling Hall & Saloon for dinner. I also withdrew the money for my Main Event buyin and ate a couple hundred dollars worth of fees (and will eat a couple hundred more when I have to convert it back to USD) for my efforts. Thank you ever so much Full Tilt for being massively helpful in not letting me withdraw to a US bank account.. Whatever, in the grand scheme of things, it’s only an extra couple percent in rake on the tournament that will make or break my trip. So annoying though, since the same day I end up with someone who could have taken the money online for cash. Oh well.

I play an online session and lose about $180 with only one cash in a 10r; I keep running into flopped sets and having AK
Tomorrow it’s my turn.

However, the occupant involved is my housemate Mike, not me. While I was busy donking off stacks online today, Mike (who is a cash game player) decided to enter the daily Venetian Deepstack on a whim and just informed me he just chopped 8way in a 900ish player tournament for something like 16k then went on to finish sixth when they played it out. Details to follow, but this moment gives me hope that my series is far from over

Like usual, I sleep in and lounge around for the day (I briefly fire up a session of online poker, entering a 50r, rebuying immediately, losing with aces on the first hand to drop back to a single stack then losing with eights a couple hands later to bust. I decide not to rebuy again and i’m too tilted to continue so I abort the session before heading out to Palms in the early evening. I try and walk (I don’t mind walking around Vegas at night; during the day it’s too hot obviously) but find that a bridge that you have to cross doesn’t have a pedestrian section so I flag down a taxi driver who decides to rip me off a few dollars by quoting a fare and ignoring the meter. Whatever.

I arrive at the Palms to catch up on the latest movies I want to see at what i’m told is the best cinema in Vegas. It seems pretty normal by Australian standards so it’s a bit of a letdown after all of the glowing reviews but it’s more than acceptable.

I watch The Hangover and Transformers: ROTF back to back. The Hangover is every bit as good as everyone says; it’s a must see and definitely the best comedy of the year. Five stars. Transformers is a solid action movie but advanced storytelling isn’t exactly Michael Bay’s forte. He’s good with explosions though… and casting the two hottest acrtresses in Hollywood doesn’t hurt at all (Megan Fox and Australia’s own Isabel Lucas; formerly jailbait on Australian soapie Home and Away and now rivalling Megan Fox for hottest babe ever). Three stars for transformers. After the movies, I wander over to the Gold Coast Casino for some 1/2. I find myself shorthanded (ranging from 5-8 players) with three of the biggest fish i’ve seen in Vegas so far; an ageing drunk stripper who was busy abusing the guy next to her for not saying thank you for something that happened before I arrived, an old woman known as ‘mama’, a guy who flatted a lot of 3bets and open shoved more than the pot on each occasion and then two bad scandy lags (from Finland I believe) with random other people coming and going.

Somehow, I manage to drop a little over buyin and a half (down 315 overall) when spazzy guy flats my 3bet twice then open shoves for over the flop on two seperate occasions for a bit over the pot; I have QQ on an AKx flop and lay it down (a huge mistake as he said he had eights and from what I saw later I tend to believe him) and then with Ax on a low flop. He’s cold calling 3bets for a third of his stack on the SB and jamming stuff like QJ into random people on undercard boards, so I decide i’m not folding to him anymore. Somehow, over about 100 hands/4 hours, I win precisely one pot (losing with QQ, QQ again, AK, 99, etc. along the way) and miss countless multi-way flops with low PPs and suited connectors) and I find myself with about $145 remaining. I find A3o on the button, one limper, scandy raises to 11 on cutoff (he does this a full 100% of the time when someone limps and that is not an exaggeration; he’s playing something like 85/70/1) so I reraise to 40 and superdonk guy flats in the BB with an identical stack to me. I’ve already made my mind up that the rest is going in on any non KQJ type of flop.

Flop is 752. He donkbets all in for what must be the seventh time in seven times he’s flatted a 3bet and I tank for a little bit, tell him i’m considering an ace high calldown, this seems to rattle him so I call. He tells me he has ace high too.

#$%^&#$%^&*$%^&*$%^&*(*$%^&* roughly sums up my feelings when he turns over AJ. I know the call is SO bad on paper even getting 2-1 but I knew he had absolute air again (the QQ on AKx is a snapcall in hindsight, as is the AK high but those were the first two times he flatted the 3bet and openshoved against anyone and he’s down several buyins and done it several times against others villains since)

Anyhow, I miss my seven outs, wonder how the hell i’m down a buyin and a half, realise I just called off my stack with A3 high and decide to call it a night. Softest 6max game ever and I got owned. I was already down 160 before that hand but it feels pretty crappy to essentially give away 3/4 of a buyin to a total fish. I play so bad. I’m fairly sure I got all three decisions wrong against him and that if I had called on the other two I would have been good. For the record, Gold Coast is as much of a dump as its reputation suggests but if you want to find a soft table, even the 2/4 players seemed really bad. I find i’m down to $14 in my wallet (I brought a shade over 3k USD with me, so i’m down 3k now) which is just enough for a taxi home and a 6am snack at the service station.

I think I need to wire myself more money. This displeases me. I now have the main event and about 3-3.5k as my bankroll for the remainder of the trip. Ten more deepstacks/megastacks. I’d better at least cash in one of them (or ideally the main which ironically, I think is my best chance of cashing overall due to the structure). If I go 0/11 or 0/13 or whatever for the second half of the trip after going 1/12 or so on the first half i’m quitting live poker forever.

In conclusion, I can sum up today with some cliffnotes; I saw a good movie and an average movie, I visited two new casinos, I donked off a buyin and a half to one of the fishiest 1/2 tables i’ve ever sat at and i’ve gone through half of my non Main Event Las Vegas bankroll a couple days before the halfway point in my trip.

I’ve finally found a moment to upload some photos of my trip to Vegas so far.

You can check them out in the forums here since i’m not sure how to upload photos to the blog yet (it’s not letting me, Ozone feel free to edit this if you can)

Anyway, view photos of my trip so far here. http://www.pokertips.org/forums/showthread.php?t=69492

After being unable to sleep at 6am, I decide to stay awake all night so that I can play the $340 Megastack at Caesars at midday. I make a couple of buyins playing 2/4 Razz online to kill the time and by morning, i’m ready to get my grind on. I head to Caesars and find myself seated with six old men and one young guy who clearly plays online with two empty seats. They’re every bit as bad as I expect and I soon find myself involved at 50/100 after splashing around at 25/50 with no real effect on my stack either way.

Dealt to SwoopAE: Ks Qs

Old man raises to 300 on hijack; I don’t really like KQs against his range but we’re deep and I can obviously outplay him in position so I decide to take a flop heads up.

Flop: Js Ts Td

Well, hello there Royal Flush draw.

Villain checks which I assume means he’s fairly strong and the flop connected in some way (at least AQ/AK minimum) but i’ve got a monster here so I bet 375 anyway. Villain calls.

Turn: 9c

A nut straight with straight flush redraw is helpful. Old man checks, I bet 1050 and he quickly almost-minraises to 2500. Fuck, that means he at least has a ten if not a full house. I decide to call and re-evaluate on the river. River is Ac. God damn it, now I don’t even beat AT anymore. Villain bets 5,000 and I fold my KsQs face up, much to the shock amazement of the rest of the table. Villain tables TT for quads and I feel kinda stupid for not folding the turn since he basically has a range of JJ, TT or AT when he check-minaises the turn but i’m happy that I didn’t take a serious hit to my stack in a spot where a weak player would go broke. A few orbits later, I get it back when I get 6d3d and take a seven way flop in a limped pot. The flop is AQJ with two diamonds and UTG bets out 200 and gets FOUR callers (i’m the second caller) and we take a five way turn. Turn is 9d completing the flush. Old man nit from the first hand leads 1000 and I seriously go into the tank; the only hand I beat is Ad with a pair or two pair and he has stuff like 7d8d so often. I decide to call down though, fortunately everyone else folds and he only fires a 1/3 pot bet on the river which I call, he shows Ad9x for two pair with the nut flush draw on the turn and I climb back to 15k.

At 75/150, I take a couple of small hits then get involved with a hyper-aggressive Asian guy who sat in one of the empty seats, I get JJ in against AA in a 3bet pot on the turn on a four undercard board and bink a jack on the river; my first true luckbox moment of the trip. Sitting at about 26k now. Things settle down for a while, at 200/400/50 I manage to get involved in a massive pot against a super loose aggressive donkey maniac who sat in the other seat; I 4bet 99 and decide to call his 5bet shove getting about 2-1, he has AK and I hold and suddenly i’m well over 40k with the average at about 18k. Over the next few levels, I chip up to 65k without showdowns by abusing the nits and then find myself raising limpers and getting pot committed with AJ against the UTG limper’s QQ. I bink the ace though and find my way to about 100k by 600/1200/100, then chip up to 120k without showdowns. The average is something like 38k and i’m one of the chipleaders; 27 are paying in the 265ish field and the average on the bubble will be 150k or so. During 800/1600/200, I find myself 4betting all in with AK and getting called by QQ in a button vs sb spot; I brick out in a massive pot worth well over 100k and fall back to the 60k region. I chip back up to 120k without any major showdowns then take a hit when I flop a set against a short-medium stack, commit the stacks by the turn on a Q626 board with 22 only for a third six to fall on the river to counterfeit me against a clear pocket pair and villain shoves, I fold and he tables 77. Sigh. I grind back a bit but at 2k/4k it all starts to fall apart when a weak-passive guy who is incapable of trapping limps, three players limp behind, i’ve been carddead for a while and I ship my 110k in to steal ~20k with QTs (i’ve stolen close to 100k in chips this tournament overall abusing limpers with no resistance) only for the original limper to decide to call off his 65k stack with AQ. Limpcall is optimal, sir. In this case, it actually is and he holds to cripple me to 40k as we near the bubble. I steal my way back to 60k (the average is now about 120k) and with 30 players left (27 paying) I ship my remaining 55k in MP with 77, get reshoved on by the guy from the AK/QQ hand who barely covers me (he has AQ) and I lose the flip to bust on the bubble. I’ve been awake over 30 hours and i’m demoralised more than I have been since busting after, well, pretty much any tournament since Aruba, mainly because i’m so tired and w’ere a couple hands from the money (which is the end of Day 1) and I grew a 120k stack twice stealing from nits only to lose three 100k+ pots (QT vs AQ, AK vs QQ, 77 vs AQ), the first two of which would have given me a close to 200k stack and free reign over the table and the third locking up a guaranteed first megastack cash of the series if I win the flip.

Oh, I also took photos, i’m going to upload them to a thread in the forum and link it here when I get a chance. No hookers, but I did get a couple of the PCD Dancers (random dancing girls in bikinis at Caesars who pole dance in a blackjack pit area)

Tonight’s blog is a mess, but you’ll have to excuse me since i’m miserable due to bubbling and being awake for over 30 hours.

I’m going to bed.

Tomorrow, i’m going to cash in a donkament. The power of positive thinking.

I sleep in like usual and chill out at the condo for the day (or should I say evening, since I woke up when it was dark). I decide to maybe get an hour or two worth of sleep in at some stage but stay up to play tomorrow’s deepstack and reset my sleeping schedule in doing so.

After a while, I get bored and decide to play some online poker. I register for the Turbo Fiddy, a 30r, two 26fos and a 26 90man. I get deep in the turbo fiddy before open shoving 10bb into a monster with 70 left without cashing, then find myself getting it in with QQ against TT in a 26 for the outright chiplead with about a third of the field left to bust when he binks a ten. I run deep in the 30r then get it in with AQ vs A3 on a A53 flop after villain flats my UTG raise for about 15% of his stack in a lol donkaments situation with about 15-20% of the field left. I brick out to bust. I make the final table of the 26 90man only to bust in eighth in a pot for over a third of the chips in play where I get it in domianted in a bvb spot, bink my queen only for villain to resuck and hit the ace on the river to send me to the rail. Overall, I end up with a loss of about $150 so I decide to play some razz (which i’m still playing). Overall, my least eventful day of the trip so far.

Cash: $0
Tournaments: $0
Online Tournaments: -$150

Nothing else to repport today really. Hopefully tomorrow brings my first Megastack final table of the series. Oh, and if anyone knows anyone who is able to register me for the Main Event in Vegas in exchange for 10k on Full Tilt, please let me know via PM on the forums, i’m SwoopAE there; i’ll bring a laptop into the rio and do a same-time transaction and give them something like $100 or 1% of me in the main (negotiable, obviously whatever is standard/fair in these spots) for the hassle. Saves me having to withdraw from USD to AUD and then convert from AUD back to USD in order to buy in only to have to convert any winnings back from USD to AUD after the series. If I haven’t found anyone within a week i’ll have to eat the exchange rate fees instead since i’ll need a few days for moneybookers to process my transaction if I do decide to withdraw. Exchange rates in Vegas suck.

I sleep in again and spend the day relaxing. By the late afternoon, Michael and I decide to head in to the strip. We wander around for a while and eventually head to the Caesars Palace buffet for dinner. For $29.99 apiece we’re treated to a nice assortment of roasts, asian dishes, salads, soup and all of the usual treats that are found at a Vegas buffet. In an unusual feature, every table gets its own seafood platter. I don’t normally eat seafood but I try the prawns (that’s shrimp for you Americans) and crab; hey, while in Vegas, I may as well try new things.

The food is quite good and I overdose on roast turkey and kung pow chicken. The service and desserts are disappointing though; our waitress only has four tables in her section, it’s a hassle ordering drinks and the empty plates pile up on all four tables until we start dumping them on an unused table, everyone else follows suit and the unusued table quickly has about sixteen (i’m not exaggerating) plates on it. She brings us the wrong drinks repeatedly and informs us that they’re out of the large glasses so we get kids sized drinks. Here’s my breakdown of the Caesars Buffet

Price: Average
Mains: Above average
Misc Food: Average
Desserts: Below average
Service: Abysmally bad, worse than anywhere i’ve ever seen

Fortunately, the dining experience is decent overall though due to the quality of the mains and at about 9pm; Michael and I are finally full and we head out for a session of low stakes gambling against the house.

First up is the wheel like object that they spin and you can bet on numbers. After about half an hour, i’ve made a net profit of $1 and I decide to move on to the roulette table. I break even exactly at roulette and find my way over to a $1 video blackjack machine. I luckbox my way to being up over four dollars at one point, before hitting a cold streak. I get unstuck though and finish the session with fifty cents profit… ship it! The 11pm $125 tournament is starting soon as Caesars and Michael and I head over to register. With my $1.50 in profit, i’ve paid for about 1.2% of my buy-in! Oh yeah, bringing down the house, baby! One dollar, fifty cents and a hell of a lot of double grey goose and redbulls for Michael and Becks for me, despite my house gambling bankroll being $20. Yes, I am a table games nit.

In the tournament, Michael chips up early when he flops top set and a guy decides to put 100bb or some obscene amount in with top pair while I struggle to get off the mark; I fail to make one pair or better at any stage (with the exception of 55 once which I had to fold preflop) but somehow I manage to chip up to nearly 7,000 by the start of 300/600/75, four hours later, by stealing blinds and antes, squeezing all in with random hands ranging from KQo to T6s over limpers/raises and generally bluffing like a madman without getting caught. I’ve seen AK once which I reshoved preflop without a caller and I think my next best hands have been KQo and A7s in over four hours. Still, with an 11bb stack as we start 300/600 with about a third of the field remaining, I feel some hope as if I double to near the average i’ll be in a solid position. I finally find myself involved in my first major pot with a caller at 300/600/75

Folded to me on CO, I open shove for 6600 with Ac 2c, folded around, BB calls and turns over Ah Jd. Before I turn over my cards, the nitty button who agonised before folding asks if I have kings. LOL, Donkaments. I flip my deuce first, much to his shock and horror. Anyway, that’s quite unfortunate. Can we get a two please, dealer?

Flop: 558

I don’t suppose we could have an eight on the turn?

Turn: J

River: T

I brick out and bust without having made a pair or better in a postflop pot at any stage of the tournament. I did witness two live poker moments which make the $125 entry fee worth my while in entertainment value, however.

Hand 1

Nitty woman raises to 300, shortstacked loose-passive guy calls, LAG on the button raises to 800. Nitty woman calls. shortstacked guy announces all in for 825 total. Button calls. Without bothering to look at her stack, nitty woman announces fold then looks on in horror and when people explain it’s only 25 chips more to call into a ~2500 pot. She explains that she didn’t look at his stack and just heard all in. Okay then. The board runs out and she says that she would have lost so it turns out the fold was correct. Cool.

Hand 2

After unknown preflop action (I think a raise and a call or one limper, I wasn’t paying attention since I wasn’t in the hand), a very tight, moderately aggressive guy in late position bets 400 when it’s checked to him and SB calls. The board is KT2 rainbow and effective stacks are about 9k. The turn is 9, so the board is KT29. SB now bets 1500. Tight guy casually throws QJ into the muck face up. the other guy tables T9 faceup and looks amused. I burst out laughing along with several other players. The rest of the table looks on in shock and someone tries to explain to him that he has the nuts. He replies with ‘no I don’t’ then looks at his cards and says something to the extent of ‘oh, crap, I thought I had QT’. We continue laughing at his misfortune as explains that he didnt look at his cards postflop because he didnt want to give away tells. He goes on to say that villain probably would have made a full house anyway and he only had 400 invested so it doesnt really bother him that he folded the best hand because he would have got sucked out on and he doesn’t want to play a big pot this early.

As I said… LOL, Donkaments.

Anyhow, I bust with about 30% of the field left without making a pair or better and Michael busts out shortly after with about 20% of the field left. We stop in at a restaurant at Bill’s Gambling Hall and Saloon for some late night snacks and then head home to play a penny stakes game.

We start off playing HU HORSE, Michael crushes me during LHE and Stud, I crush him during LO8 and Razz and we break even at Stud8. After a few rotations, we change the game to PLO and after hitting an obscenely good run of cards to take the chip lead, we eventually get the last of our very short stacks in with my 78xx against his 9×8h6h3 on a Jx4h5h6x board and he bricks thre river, giving me the first victory in what will become our multi-part series of penny home games over the remainder of the summer. We decide that we’re going to Excess, a club at Encore this Saturday night for my first Las Vegas clubbing experience. Michael goes to bed and I catch up on some writing, facebook and other internet stuff and eventually crash out at about 6:30am. I need to run as hot as I do in these penny home games in a donkament sometime. When you’re playing poker, flopping top set every third hand helps.

Stats

Cash Games: $0
Tournaments: -$125
Random Degenerate Gambling: +$1.50
Penny Home Game: +$1.20 (approx)

(By the way, I have pics for the blog now since I took some today, i’ll upload them when I purchase a USB since I didn’t bring one with me).